PORTUGAL. CROSS OF MERIT OF THE PORTUGUESE LEGION, GOLD CLAS...

Estimate

£120 - £180

PORTUGAL. CROSS OF MERIT OF THE PORTUGUESE LEGION, GOLD CLASS Portugal. Cross of Merit of the Portuguese Legion, gold class (Cruz de Mérito da Legià£o Portuguesa, da classe de ouro)

The Legião Portuguesa was a paramilitary organisation founded in 1936 in support of the right-wing dictatorship of Antà³nio de Oliveira Salazar then threatened by internal dissent and Spanish Republicans as the Civil War in neighbouring Spain flared. Its aim was ‘defender o património espiritual da Nação e combater a ameaça comunista e o anarquismo’ (to defend the spiritual heritage of the nation and combat the threat of Communism and Anarchism).

From the 1940s, the regime’s grip on power secure, it became largely a civil defence force. It was dissolved on 25 April 1974 after the fall of the Salazar government.

The Cross is rare.